Enhance or modernize a concrete or breeze-block wall, create a fence… Preserve your privacy in the garden.
To guarantee the tranquility of its occupants, the city garden is ideally walled. Instead of reducing space, the tall blackouts give the impression of a spacious garden. Isolated from the view of the surroundings, it becomes a “little world apart” …
Do you dream of it? First of all, be aware that private property fences comply with legislation in the Local Urban Plan and the Land Use Plan. Indeed, article 663 of the Civil Code indicates that the maximum authorized height of a wall in cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants is 3.60 meters, and 2.60 meters in other towns. But it is essential to get information from the town hall because each locality is free to adjust these data. Filing a return may also be necessary. At the same time, think about reaching an agreement between local residents, before starting the work. And then, there are also tips to gain a few meters in height despite the constraints! Here are our skyscraper garden shading ideas.
Inspired Property Designs
1. Raising a concrete block wall (or concrete fence)
Basic, the block or concrete wall is a solid, durable, and 100% blackout. This is the most common solution to visually separate (in good harmony!) From your neighbors. Second advantage: it allows a wide range of decorative facings, which each owner can choose from his side: wood cladding, greening, painting …
- Tip n ° 1: Play on “big topics”
In the language of a nurseryman or a landscaper, a “great subject” is a tree of great scope. In this Australian garden, this eucalyptus protrudes a large head from the top of the wall: it gives the impression of a higher altitude and therefore better privacy, without completely cutting off the light. It then becomes an essential complement to the wall, improving its concealment. And… what a graphic advantage, moreover! Poplar, birch, Scots pine or chestnut would also be exemplary in this role.
How to integrate a tree into the design of outdoor spaces?
CATO creative Ltd
- Tip n ° 2: Play on heights and trifles – skylights and colors
See how these two perpendicular walls manage to encircle the horizon, without creating any suffocation? This is thanks to the height play: the one on the left is higher than the one on the front. The great trick is to cut out one of the surfaces to let the light through while maintaining the occultation.
And it also works the other way around, to add a slight lift to a wall deemed too low, if necessary. This treatment also creates an aesthetic originality which gives a certain dynamism to a smooth whole.
Finally, white visually enlarges the space by reflecting light. With mostly touches of green, and some of charcoal gray, the whole gives the garden a contemporary and romantic style at the same time. We definitely want to stay there, even if curiosity piques us and prompts us to peek from time to time on the other side of the wall!
Canopies
- Tip n ° 3: Fix an XL trellis
Does your protective stone wall and plaster appeal to you aesthetically or is it in poor condition and needs additional blackout? Without doing major renovations, you can opt for the installation of a high wooden trellis. This is reminiscent of the know-how of the trellises of French gardens and of Versailles in particular. Not only do they form an elegant and solid support for climbing plants, but they bring a certain refinement to a basic wall, while still allowing light to pass through. The result: a classic chic garden.
SB Garden Design
Same concept with this metal trellis, leaning against a wall and colonized by climbing nasturtiums. Bamboo completes the growing vegetal picture.
Pedersen Associates
- Tip # 4: Laying wooden cedars and crows
Particularly original, this idea of the Canadian landscape architects Pedersen Associates is very interesting: “Sculpted elements are called corbels ” , explains Pete Pedersen. “They form the base of the trellis for the horizontal truss elements to rest on them: they are Cedars.” “ This solution combines the useful with the pleasant: it elevates and completely encloses the garden, while providing a real decorative advantage.
This corbel technique (“corbeau” being derived from the old French “corbel”) refers to masonry know-how dating from the Middle Ages. Its dual objective of strengthening and embellishing the building is adaptable to our contemporary gardens and to current issues, thanks to easy woodworking.
Pedersen Associates
The overhang formed by the cantilevered cantilevers also makes it possible to vegetate the top of the wall – this is definitely essential. A very elegant overhang to be made by a passionate craftsman!
The Association of Professional Landscapers
2. Completing and modernizing a brick wall
The brick wall brings that little vintage spirit so appreciated in romantic gardens. It is also possible to cheat a little and apply a red brick facing to a concrete or cinder block wall! If your wall is several decades old and you would like to restore and enrich it, the choice of wood is once again a good option. Trellises and cladding being eminently trendy, it is in good taste to combine them and contrast them with a mineral wall.
In this arrangement, the triple contrast of materials, densities and shapes gives a beautiful whole.
- Tip n ° 1: Disburse the garden
In a small garden to be optimized and whose vis-à-vis needs to be improved, digging out one of its areas (ideally closest to the house) is a wise enterprise. Thus in height, the garden will benefit from several spaces and the lowest area will be completely private. See how the marriage of the three types of occultation is perfectly successful in this English garden: horizontal wooden cladding in the base, then brick wall and finally checkered wood trellis.
Kingston Lafferty Design
Here is another example of a sunken, compartmentalized garden. The concrete wall being as high as the wooden palisade that dominates it, the elevation effect is impressive!
The Association of Professional Landscapers
- Tip n ° 2: Bet on a palisade-style siding, in color and in heights
Here we find the play on different heights, to which is added a play on materials and colors. The brick wall is here and there doubled or overhung with an openwork cladding, itself crowned in one place by a light and raw wooden espalier, which the trained trees are conquering. The camouflage of weak points is successful, highlighting the best points of view.
Timothy Tasker Architects
In addition, the tall trees and the interplay of plant verticalities are always a strong asset for improving the privacy of a small garden.
0Jo Cowen Architects
3. Create a wooden fence
To adjoin a mineral wall or to replace it, wooden palisades with horizontal slats are currently experiencing a real craze. Very aesthetic, they modernize any space and are particularly decorative. Moreover, the width of the slats and their spacing can be more or less important, an essential detail for the customization of the garden.
- Tip n ° 1: Degrade wood colors
The lower part can be sanded, treated, varnished or even painted, while some upper slats remain raw. The visual effect is pleasant and emphasizes the enhancement of the fence well. And see how it’s a hide-and-seek solution that also fits on a wall! Finally, as in this first example, eucalyptus makes it possible to add yet another upper floor to the general concealment work.
10 wooden fences to delimit your garden
The Association of Professional Landscapers
- Tip n ° 2: Layer it on raw and natural materials
Raw materials are a big trend in the garden. Pairing them together creates a unique atmosphere and adds extra privacy here and there. The air of nothing, that’s everything!
In this English garden, the black waxed concrete wall is superbly associated with a Corten steel panel on the one hand and about fifteen rough and horizontal wooden slats from somewhere else. A few trellised hazelnuts, climbing jasmine and bamboo stems … The impression of being elsewhere!
Vincent Rustuel Professional Photographer
- Tip n ° 3: Fill the upper part of the fence with plants
As we have seen, the width of the palisade slats and their spacing may vary. This example of a solid wooden palisade surmounted by openwork slats shows how an ivy, for example, can colonize the upper part and give a new dimension to a conventional garden fence.
Cityscapers
- Tip n ° 4: Mix horizontal and vertical
Have fun with the lines: a horizontal garden fence goes very nicely with graphic and slender plants such as bamboo, yucca, palm trees… To let grow higher than the fence itself. same.
And then, surprise with an original element: for example this concrete frame with a vertical frieze. Once again, what a nice contrast of colors, materials and styles!
The Bloomsbury Gardener
- Tip n ° 5: Raise the fence with trained or pruned trees
If you opt for a wooden palisade with vertical slats, the alliance with vertical subjects is elementary. For a harmonious whole, prune the ornamental trees “in marquise” or “in curtain” on the model of the pruning techniques of large cities: well leveled, they will create a real green wall which will dominate the garden.
Peter Landers Photography
This is the preferred solution for nature lovers. Completely blackout once the plant has taken its ease, however, it requires a little patience, but adapts to all situations: fence already in place or not, particularly unsightly wall …
A clever mix of different varieties of ivy and ferns is most effective and it is of course possible to enrich other types of green plants. Not yet high enough or finished enough for your taste? Simply add a fence mesh at the top to continue to grow this screen of greenery!
Ian Barker Gardens
You don’t have the permission or the ability to elevate?
Complying with external requirements and throwing in the towel is not the only solution. Innovate!
- Tip # 1: Create an awning
If occultation can’t “grow tall”, do like nature, adapt, be flexible! This creation by landscape designer Ian Barker is an extraordinary example of biomimicry: a pergola-hut that makes the terrace truly confidential without making it oppressive.
Marion Bernard Architects
- Tip n ° 2: Modern arbor
Here is another example of innovative blackout. It just eclipses part of the garden, leaving the rest freer and on view. A nice in-between!
Roy Brooks Estate Agents Ltd
AND YOU?
Have you raised the fences in your garden? Have you implemented other solutions? Tell us everything!